Also looking at the mysterious gap at #8 in your estimated 6/23 chart, my best guess is that it's Elvis Costello's "Veronica," which was #61 on the year-end chart but still hasn't turned up in any of the top 10 lists. It peaked at #19 on BB right around then.

Heh, thanks. Though I don't know if I'll ever find any other newspapers with MTV chart info. There were no newspapers with info on 11/27/87. I gotta ask, are you sure Richard Marx peaked at #4 with "Should've Known Better"? Because there wasn't enough room for it and "Little Lies" that week. (Not to mention that, while not always a factor, 11/20 was the final week the former was on the MTV airplay lists.) Still, in addition to doing fairly well on the year end top 100, it did get a few top of the hour recurrent plays.

According to old TV listings as well as R&R magazine, MTV did a Top 27 1/2 summer video countdown at the end of summer in '87 and '88.

yeah, looking back at those weeks in light of the new confirmed 11/20 top 10, I guess I must have mis-recorded the Richard Marx peak. Plus just in general I can't think of any other trajectories from that era of =/+1/+1/drop, whereas =/+1/drop was relatively common.

I'll go back and update those '87/'88 lists earlier in the thread with the most recent data at some point.

* Was on the top 100 of '87 and on the top 20 during both years.** Was still on the top 20.**+ Was still on the top 20, and would be on the top 100 of '89.*** Was already on the top 20 but not in the top 100 of '87.**** Was in the top 100 of '87 but already fell out of the top 20.

Only planned on doing peaks and bullet points, but then the rest kind of followed.

Kenne wrote:Need You Tonight must've got that high ranking because it swept the Video Music Awards that year.

Also, I have a couple theories why it got the early shaft based on some old playlist research. Evidently, "Devil Inside" premiered within the last week and a half of '87, which would have cut Need You Tonight's run in rotation short. Plus, from what I've read, the medley version of NYT that included Mediate was released further down the line, though I have no idea of when. (The lack of Mediate from the MTV playlists where Need You Tonight was on would seem to confirm this.)

Right after the end of this (supposed Week in Rock) feature on Duran Duran's return with Big Thing and "I Don't Want Your Love", a mini snippet of the video being introduced on the countdown at #10 (up from #13) by Adam Curry with interview clip on the week of 11/11/88:

Notice how they did recaps even though they were doing a remote edition. Just a year later they NEVER did recaps, pre-taped interview clips, pre-commercial flashbacks, etc. on special remote editions of the countdown. Also, there was an ad for Mardi Gras weekend, which was the following weekend of 2/3, meaning OwenMeany was off by a week. Not to mention that Living Colour hadn't made it on the countdown at this point, meaning that weekend would mark its debut at #19 (along with "Leave Me Alone" from Michael Jackson at #20).

Here's the end of 5/29 (#1 and #2 with recap of top 10), with Mark Goodman concluding that there were 11 acts moving up on the chart, and 3 debuts from "rock veterans", and possibility of debuts from Bob Seger's "Shakedown" and Kim Wilde's "You Keep Me Hangin' On" the following week, meaning the latter hadn't actually charted yet. I'm guessing Kim actually debuted the following week of 6/5 at #17 if the estimates there are correct. #20 and #19 for 5/27 meanwhile in either order would be "Meet Me Halfway" by Kenny Loggins, and, personal guess, "Why Can't This Night Go On Forever" by Journey, which was in heavy rotation at that moment but would disappear from the MTV playlists the following week, likely resulting in a blink and you'll miss it one week charting. Both would have qualified as rock veterans, alongside Heart, who would have had the highest debut of the week.

Just 68 videos to go top 5 within the year on the list (not counting one or two (i. e. Michael Bolton) that did not make the list despite not suffering any yearly cutoff). Lots more staying power from this point on.

Thanks for the upload of those 3 charts. That is HUGE!. Sorry about Living Colour and Michael. I was right about the chart positions off by a week with countdown. I thought it was 1/27 that's when they do Mardi Gras. I will try to retrace my steps forward and back with those 3 weeks. Good Stuff!!!!

My 1/20 guess for "Comfortably Numb" at #11 that week was based on it having its final week of MTV rotation that week, which was also its 9th week in total on the channel. Though that as easily be attributed to a minimal run quota, as MTV had sometimes been given to doing. Still, around that time MTV seemingly trended towards keeping videos in their rotation lists until they fell off the chart, unless it was, say, Bon Jovi, or Paula Abdul, in which case they'd either get more time up until their next video was added into rotation (i. e. "I'll Be There for You" staying on the Heavy list after it fell off the chart, disappearing when "Lay Your Hands On Me" debuted).